Alternate Pairings Contest
by True Colours
Summary: Results out!
1. Chapter 1

Ciao and good evening, one and all. I don't know why I put that seeing as its only early afternoon as I write, but whatever. You're here to enter a contest, not to quibble about the time.

By the way, you *are* here to enter, right?

I hoped that that little bit of egotism on the summary might be unusual enough to get people interested. Presumably it worked if you're reading this. So anyway, now that I have you here...trapped and helpless...your assignment is:

**To write a fic for an ALTERNATE PAIRING!**

**Pairings which are NOT allowed:**

MasayaXIchigo

KishXIchigo

IchigoXRyou

LettuceXRyou

PaiXLettuce

PuddingXTart

In fact, let's leave Pudding and Tart out of this altogether. There's nobody else of a suitable age for them. Any other pairing is allowed.

**Criteria: **

Spelling and grammar. These are absolutely essential to me. Your fic won't stand a chance if it is riddled with errors. Use spell-check, proofread, saying your lines out loud and thinking, '_does this make sense?' _Get a beta if you need to. And remember: if a new character begins to speak, you need to start a new paragraph.

Quality of writing in general. Does it flow? Does the mood come across? Is your description always apt?

The difficulty of the pairing. For example, I would say that MintXZakuro only just counts as alternate, whereas PaiXIchigo, for example, could never work in my opinion. So a well-written and believable MintXZakuro would beat a PaiXIchigo where the only reason they're together is because the author says so, but if you can write PaiXIchigo plausibly, and make me believe it could work, then that will beat a safer pairing. I'll leave you to decide for yourselves which are the safe pairings and which are the far-out ones :P.

Enter by leaving a review or PMing me. Some of you will probably need a bit of time, and a few chapters (though oneshots are allowed), to persuade your characters into their alternate pairings, so I'm giving you till the 1st of May. I don't like to make the deadlines *too* long, otherwise people tend to forget. And I want you to have something down by the 5th of April (my birthday!), just to keep things moving.

Good luck!

**True**

WHOOOPS! The prize!

I will write the winner a oneshot about the character or characters of their choice. It doesn't have to be a freaky alternate pairing this time, it can be whoever you want. And you can choose the scenario too, like romance or an epic battle scene. A word of warning, though: my Kichigo reservoirs are completely dry, and to ask for a lemon might be pushing your luck. Don't get me wrong, I like a good lemon, I just have trouble *twitch* writing *twitch* them *twitch*.

So yeah. Have fun.


	2. Chapter 2

Entrants

**A/N: OK, so here's the thing. I have been being very lazy about recording the people who entered my competition, and as a lot of you entered by PM, I don't have a record of you all. So here's all the people I *think* have entered so far. If I've missed you off, PM/review, because it's important that I have you on alerts, or I might miss your update!**

mew mew 124

Gypsyxsilent

Essence of Gold

Dragontamer94 

Sakuuya

MewMidnight

Fireflies Glow

Saba's Reflection

Phoebeleo35

**Good luck to you all...and hurry up! I am hungry for my first entry here!**

**True**

**P.S: I'm still accepting new entries as well. **


	3. Chapter 3

Hi, just a quick note to remind you all that you need to have something posted by Monday the 5th of April. I don't think I've received any updates yet, so if you've posted your entry and I haven't PMed you saying that I've seen it, you might want to give me a poke. Also, if you haven't entered yet you are allowed to enter after April the fifth, it is just what my school would call an 'interim deadline' to make sure that people aren't forgetting all about it.


	4. Chapter 4

Well, t'is the fifth of April, and guess what? I have recieved not ONE SINGLE SOLITARY UPDATE! Be ashamed! You all fail! I suppose if I disqualified everybody who missed this deadline I wouldn't have much of a contest left, so I guess you've got away with it this time, but come on! A little respect?


	5. Chapter 5

You know what, guys? True Colours is a fool who doesn't take exams into account when setting deadlines for contests. Turns out I totally cannot judge this on the first of May, because I'll be drowning in my Drama exam round about then, so y'all have until 28th June, which is the day I get my last exam done. I know that's a pretty long way away, but looks like some of you are going to need it, seeing as I only have five entries in. And I'm sorry that I changed the deadline so soon before the original date. I meant to tell you all sooner and save you from the stress of trying to make this deadline, but with all my drama work I just...forgot...^^'

If you keep the updates trickling in all through my study-leave and exams it will give me something nice to read in between revision sessions. Thanks!

True xxx


	6. Chapter 6

OK, I believe I have reviewed every fic now – if you haven't received a review from me yet, PM me or leave a review here now. You have twenty-four hours to respond (XD). Results will be posted as soon as I'm sure I haven't missed off any entries. I'm sorry to keep you all in suspense for another day; I was out all day yesterday and so couldn't get on with the reviews. Also, I've realised that while this deadline I set means that I can judge at my leisure with my exams over, it meant that you were all having to finish your entries in the middle of your exams. Sorry about that ^^".

And those of you who missed the deadline, finish your entries anyway. I'd still be interested to read them.

True


	7. Chapter 7

Hi, people! Time is up, last-minute entries are in, reviews are out, and now I'm going to go all Strictly-Come-Dancing on you and say that THIS...is the moment...of Truth.

**In third place:** **Rolopolo** with **Love Has no Recipe**. A gorgeous, graceful fic full of amazing character insights and beautifully developed cooking analogies.

**In second place: GypsyxSilent **with **This Moment**. Lovely schizophrenic darkfic with an 'I've never thought of this before but why the hell not?' pairing.

**And in first place: Kitty-Kat K.O **with **Utterly Incomprehensible**. I won't say the pairing here, because it would spoil the surprise, but OMG the CRACK! THE EPIC CRACK!

So there you have it. Congratulations to you three, and many, many thanks to everyone else who entered. It was so hard choosing these three winners – heck, it was even hard placing them. There were several other fics that missed out on a place by one hair's breadth – seriously, it hurt to choose. And there was nothing that qualified as a badfic – it was all really enjoyable stuff. Thank you so much for participating in my contest and indulging my god complex!

Now I'm going to list all the pairings used here (except for Kitty-Kat's because that would spoil the awesome), because it's FUN and fuels the COMPLEX. No two people wrote the same pairing, actually. I'm proud of you.

**MintxKeiichiro**

**LettucexDeep Blue**

**Pai/Kish (but metaphorical)**

**RyouxDuke (trying to be clever)**

**KishxBerry**

**RyouxZakuro**

**ZakuroxKeiichiro**

**LettucexMasaya**

**KishxLettuce**

Lettuce was popular. And Zakuro. Actually, nobody paired Ichigo with anyone, which is interesting (Gypsy and Dragontamer, I am annoyed with you. By using Pai and Mint at the last minute you drastically shortened my list of characters that nobody had had the imagination to use). And there was no slash (yaoi to anime fans), except for one fic which was so metaphorical that it hardly counts *sigh*. And no girl/girl slash. Maybe my next contest should be a yaoi one. I still haven't found a Pai/Deep Blue. Yes! That is my parting shot to you! Somebody write me a Pai/Deep Blue!

Oh yeah, and speaking of parting shots...^^" Kitty-Kat KO, you get to give me a prompt for a oneshot written in your honour. Whatever pairing you like, or deadly enemies if you prefer. Gypsy-san will attest as to how well this went last time. She gave me a prompt that mutated into a chapter fic and with which I grappled for about three months, and there was a lot of head-to-wall action. Anyway *grimaces bravely*, hit me, K.O.

True Colours, over and out.


End file.
